HIST 203
SYLLABUS
LECTURE OUTLINES
The New Invasions: Muslims, Magyars, and Vikings
Tuesday:
Video on Viking ships (6:28):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB4s3nQtZqE
Smithsonian Channel video on Viking longship design (3:49 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2v0CsoFctA
| 793 | Vikings attack England |
| 9th-10th C. | Carolingian empire divided, and besieged by Vikings from N., Magyars (Hungarians) from E., and Muslims (or “Saracens”) from S. |
| 814-840 | Louis the Pious |
| 842 | Oaths of Strasbourg sworn by Louis the German and Charles the Bald against Lothar |
| 843 |
Treaty of Verdun divides empire among the 3 sons of Louis the Pious (Charlemagne’s grandsons): Lothar (d. 855) becomes emperor and takes Middle Kingdom (Lotharingia, or Lorraine) Louis the German (d. 876) takes East Frankish kingdom (Germany) Charles the Bald (d. 877) takes West Frankish kingdom (France) |
| 911 |
Viking leader Rolf (Rollo) is given Normandy (alternative map: Normandy) in return for peace and conversion to Christianity. Click here for some examples of Viking place-names in Normandy. |
| 955 | Battle of Lechfeld: Hungarian (Magyar) army annihilated by Otto I (“the Great”) of Germany |
THE VIKINGS:
Tripartite society:
jarls (earls; = nobles)
karls (churls; = free farmers)
thralls (= slaves)
Swedish vikings: go east to Baltics, S. Russia, Ukraine, and Byzantine Empire
Danish vikings: go south and west to Francia, S. Europe, and British Isles
Norse vikings: go west to British Isles, Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland
Intact Viking boat-burial found October 2011 at Ardnamurchan (western Scotland)
Another Viking boat-burial found October 2018 at Halden in Norway, by radar. Click here to see a digital re-creation of the ship (now called the Gjellestad ship) and its community.
Week 8: Thursday
Excavation and analysis of about 50 decapitated Viking skeletons from Weymouth, Dorset, 2009:
(2:20 min.): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iBGV3IJbLk
(4:40 min.): http://videosift.com/video/Weymouth-ridgeway-skeletons-Scandinavian-Vikings
Excavation of Viking boat-burial at Ardnamurchan (western Scotland):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WxjKV42HS8 (1:59 min.)
Map of Scandinavia, Iceland, and Greenland
Map of Iceland with location of Althing
Additional primary sources on the Vikings include:
- Saga of Grettir the Strong (or Grettir’s Saga, written in Iceland in the early 1300s, concerning events in the 900s)
- Ibn Fadlan, Risala: Description of the Rus (921)
Additional terms include:
- Berserk (or berserker)
- Thing; All-Thing
- Wer(e)gild
Click on the following Viking artifacts:
Picture stone from Tängelgårda, Gotland 8th cent., showing Viking scenes (identified in caption as from Lårbro)
Ranvaig’s casket Looted by the Vikings from a Scottish church and acquired by a woman from Norway who carved on the bottom in runes “Ranvaig owns this.”
Grave of Viking woman from Cnip, on the isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides: skeleton, and her ornaments
Viking grave from Birka, with weapons, gaming pieces, and 2 horses, excavated in 1889, discovered in 2017 to be of a woman. Click here for a recent reconstruction of the grave.
Gospel-book redeemed from Vikings in England in the mid 9th cent. by Ealdorman Aelfred and his wife Werburg, who gave it to Canterbury Cathedral priory. [“Canterbury Codex Aureus,” now Stockholm, Kungliga Biblioteket, MS A. 135]
Mass grave of about 50 decapitated Viking skeletons from Weymouth, Dorsetshire (all male, almost all were in late teens to early 20s; C14 date: 970 x 1025 CE; identifiable as Scandinavians from the high-protein diet revealed by the isotopes in their tooth enamel) Another account of the same excavation, and another, and additional photos and a video